Research

Hormonal

SGLT2 inhibitors (specifically empagliflozin and canagliflozin) provide significant cardiovascular benefits, particularly reducing cardiovascular death and heart failure hospitalizations, primarily through hemodynamic mechanisms like intravascular volume reduction, with efficacy potentially modified by the duration of diabetes.

If you have Type 2 Diabetes and existing heart issues, ask your doctor about SGLT2 inhibitors like empagliflozin. They have been proven to significantly reduce the risk of dying from heart causes and hospitalizations for heart failure, likely by reducing fluid volume in the body. This benefit is most pronounced in patients with established cardiovascular disease.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Empagliflozin in the EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial... was the first modern-day AHA to show cardiovascular superiority on three-point MACE... primarily driven by a remarkable 38% relative risk reduction in cardiovascular death... mediation analysis... identified the importance of intravascular volume changes... both the leading mechanistic hypotheses for cardiovascular benefits of SGLT2 inhibitors—the hemodynamic... and the 'thrifty substrate'... accentuate the need for prior heart events as background (i.e., secondary intervention) to obtain the degree of cardiovascular end-point efficacy
Harpreet S. Bajaj et al. · Physiology · 2018

Why this rating

Based on large, multi-center CVOTs (EMPA-REG, CANVAS) with clear mortality endpoints, though CANVAS had mixed primary prevention results.

Source

Glucose Lowering Strategies for Cardiac Benefits: Pathophysiological Mechanisms

Harpreet S. Bajaj et al. · Physiology · 2018

DOI 10.1152/physiol.00004.2018

narrative_reviewCited 4×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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